The Community She Didn’t Know She Was Looking For
Vicki was not looking for a new home when she first walked through the doors of Sierra Winds. She was looking for one for her sister.
Four years later, she and her husband are fixtures of the community. The move they made on behalf of someone else turned out to be one of the best decisions they ever made for themselves.
From Puerto Rico to New York City
Vicki was born in Puerto Rico, the beautiful Caribbean island where her family’s roots run deep. As a child, she left the island with her family and grew up in New York City, which shaped her in the way big cities do, with pace and energy and the constant presence of people from every corner of the world.
After studying in New York, she entered the workforce and built a career in banking, working in the loan department where precision and trust went hand in hand. Then came marriage, and with it a move to Orlando, Florida. There, she returned to school and studied commercial law while working in a law firm. It was a second career that brought a different kind of discipline and a deeper understanding of how systems protect people.
When she thinks about accomplishments, she does not point to her banking career or her law studies. “My biggest accomplishment was raising two boys,” she says. “Everything else is insignificant in comparison.”
Arizona, a Sister, and a Second Chapter
About eight years ago, Vicki lost her husband of many years. Grief reshapes everything, and in its wake, she came to Arizona to be near her younger sister, who had relocated from Omaha, Nebraska, to Sun City. Two years later, Vicki remarried, and she and her husband settled into a condo in Sun City. It was a new beginning in a warm, familiar corner of the West Valley.
Then her sister came to them with a request. She wanted to find an independent living community where she would feel safe, have access to medical support if she needed it, and still have the freedom to come and go as she chose. She asked Vicki and her husband to help.
That search led them to Sierra Winds.
Two Visits Was All It Took
Vicki and her husband were not in the market for a change. They had their condo. They had their routine. They were active, engaged, and settled. But something happened when they walked into Sierra Winds.
“We were amazed at the friendly atmosphere,” she says.
They came back a second time. After that visit, they were ready to move in.
It was the activities, alongside the warmth, that caught their attention. It wasn’t a short list of options either but a full calendar of things to do, places to go, and people to do them with! As active adults who still wanted to be out in the world, they could see immediately that Sierra Winds was built for people like them.
Life at Sierra Winds
Four years in, Vicki and her husband are fervent participants in the life of the community. Bingo. Museum trips. The planetarium. Lunch outings. The calendar stays full.
But her personal favorite is Tuesday Nite Live. Entertainment groups come in regularly to perform for residents, and for Vicki, that is when the room comes alive. “Some of us get up and dance and have a wonderful time,” she says, and you can hear the joy in her voice.
Then there is the welcome committee. Vicki and her husband joined together, and together they show up for every new resident who walks through the door. They are the friendly faces, the ones who help newcomers find their footing, discover the amenities, and start making their own connections. Having been on the receiving end of that warmth themselves, they understand exactly what it means.
“We wanted to be around people,” Vicki says, explaining part of what drew them here. At Sierra Winds, that need is met every day. “We have made many friends and some very lasting relationships.”
Better Than Expected
Vicki is candid about what life at Sierra Winds has delivered. Four years in, she says that moving here addressed needs she did not fully know she had.
The physical care is there when it is needed. The emotional dimension — the friendships, the laughter, the belonging — turned out to be equally sustaining. “Moving here not only met our every need, physically and emotionally,” she says, “it has improved our way of life and our health.”
Then she laughs: “Whether we like it or not, we may live to be 100 like many others here.”
Her Advice: Come See for Yourself
Vicki does not hesitate to offer her recommendation. She offers it with the enthusiasm of someone who has lived it.
If you are considering this kind of move, she says, come and look. Bring your questions. Walk the hallways. Pay attention to how people greet you. Notice who stops to say hello.
“You will not be disappointed,” she says. “Guaranteed.”
After a life that carried her from Puerto Rico to New York, from a banking career to commercial law, from loss to a new beginning in Arizona — Vicki knows something about starting over in unfamiliar places. She knows what it takes to put down roots somewhere new.
At Sierra Winds, she did not have to try very hard. The community met her halfway.